Americans at odds over Taliban prisoner swap
AMERICANS are deeply divided over whether the Obama administration did the right thing by swapping five Taliban leaders to win the freedom of Afghanistan prisoner of war Bowe Bergdahl, according to a survey released at the start of the weekend.
Americans strongly agree that the US should make every effort to free prisoners of war such as Bergdahl, an army sergeant who was captured in eastern Afghanistan in 2009. But they also think the prisoner swap set a dangerous precedent.
The Reuters-Ipsos poll of 958 Americans interviewed online found that 44% disagreed with the statement that trading Taliban prisoners for Bergdahl was “the right thing to do”.
Twenty-six percent of them strongly disagreed.
Bergdahl was handed over to US special operations forces in Afghanistan last weekend after the Obama administration agreed to send five Taliban leaders held at Guantanamo prison to Qatar, where they must remain for a year.
Obama said he would make no apologies
After an initial wave of euphoria over the release, there was a backlash among politicianswho were angry because they had not been given 30 days’ notice before the transfer of the prisoners, as required by law.
Some of Bergdahl’s former army comrades said they believed he deserted his post.
Asked whether they thought Bergdahl was a patriot or a traitor/deserter, 65% said they did not know. Only 13% said they viewed Bergdahl as a patriot and 22% saw him as a traitor/deserter.
Obama, meanwhile, defended not telling Congress beforehand about the plan, saying time had been of the essence in completing the swap.
Saying he would make “no apologies” for the move, Obama said the decision was unanimous among principals in his administration and was backed by the Pentagon’s joint chiefs of staff. “We had to act fast in a delicate situation that required no publicity,” he said. — © The Daily
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